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Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Art lovers and loyal readers may be familiar with the Comic Art Collective, where original artwork by yours truly is available for purchase. I'm still in the process of cleaning house, so I decided to have a modest sale on the art there. Some are reduced a little, some are reduced a lot. I've also added several new pieces (including, appropriately, The Connoisseur, above) - among them are two of my "signature pieces" -- the art for my two most enduring (i.e. the ones that got me the most work) promotional postcards, both used for years during the 1990s and the 2000s. (See below) ~

In addition, if you purchase two portraits from the UNMASKED series, you will get a third one for free. Just click on the three you want and when the information comes to me, you'll only be charged for two. So you get three portraits for $100.

Here is an alphabetical listing of my art for sale, to make it easier to look through the UNMASKED series, for those of you interested:

As always, thanks for looking -- I hope you find something you like! Feel free to ask any questions you may have. Until next time ~ RS

UPDATE: Thanks very much to those you who made purchases! Please note that I will occasionally be adding a few new pieces of art as this early March sale continues. Thanks again to all my loyal readers!

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Here was how I originally planned the front and back covers of Evil Eye #4 to look. I had a lot of fun drawing the two recurring "stars" of the book, Peculia and Judy Drood, surrounded by movie monsters from the pages of old issues of Famous Monsters of Filmland. But - as often happens - I changed my mind. So -- I used the paintings for back covers instead, as you can see in the proofs below for issues #4 and #5.

The reason the rejected cover above is numbered 7 is because, in order to show what the finished version might have looked like, I used photoshop to cut & paste the logo and text from the cover of issue #7 (which has a red background that matches that of the rejected cover; I just blended it it in so you can see how the logo and text would have fit).

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Yes, as the title of this post says -- this is a special note to art lovers, ephemera collectors and comic book historians. (You know who you are!)

Here is a rare collection of one-of-a-kind items. Pictured are the actual, original - and only - cover proofs for the comic book series EVIL EYE, each of which shows both the front and back covers (or inside covers), published by Fantagraphics Books.

These are the four color separation proofs (sometimes called "3-M"s by the old-timers in the biz). They are provided by the printer to show the editor and art director how a piece will look when it's printed. Each one was sent to me for my final approval.

Each of these proofs consist of four layers of acetate: four different acetate sheets, each printed with a single color - black, yellow, magenta and cyan - that when displayed together, magically result in the full color art and form the final cover image that will be published.

The top sheet is the black layer, which, when viewed separately, looks like a copy of the main line art. Below that is the blue layer (cyan). Underneath that is the red layer (magenta). The final layer is the yellow sheet. Each sheet is of a plastic-type quality, similar to an animation cel acetate. The four sheets are securely and sturdily bound together by heavy tape, in order to keep them together for precise registration.

Each proof measures 11 1/2" x 14". They are produced to show the size of the final printed front and back covers -- but the proofs show the uncropped edges. When the cover is printed, it is trimmed on all four sides.

These are not mass-produced prints. Each is one-of-a-kind, created during the production process for the comic, and used internally by the comic company -- very cool and rare pieces of comic production art. These are often simply thrown away when the comic is published, but these particular ones were so lovely (and I was so fond of my comic book series) that I had to keep them.

They still look new, with no signs of age - all are shiny and bright. A couple do have bumped or creased corners - from when they were mailed to me.

If anyone is interested in purchasing one of these, I'm putting them up for sale individually on the Comic Art Collective. Each will be neatly signed in the white area – and would look great framed (in my humble opinion!). I would love to keep them myself, but I am in the process of "cleaning house" after a long career and many years of collecting ephemera myself. Please feel free to let me know if you have any questions at all.

Note about the images shown here: these are not scans but photos of the proofs taken with a digital camera. They may look a bit blurry -- but the actual proofs are not! They may also show a glare from the flash and may look a little darker than they actually are, and the colors may look slightly off. But each proof is actually colorful and bright, with color identical to the final printed covers.

Thanks for joining me on this behind-the-scenes tour! Interested parties may view and/or purchase one or more of the proofs here:

With any purchase, I will also provide a signed note, verifying that the proof is a one-of-a-kind item from my private collection. I will also consider discounts for buyers interested in more than one proof. Thanks again to all my loyal readers.

Thursday, February 9, 2012

From 1995 to 1997 my story The Chuckling Whatsit was serialized in the anthology Zero Zero. Here are the splash pages/chapter headings/recaps of the 17 chapters as they originally appeared. (I have no idea why my scan of chapter 17 has no recap, but it was probably because I often wrote and added those at the last minute and just hadn’t had time to add it yet when I made that scan of the art). The book version was published in 1997.

Monday, February 6, 2012

This comic was originally done for an anthology. When it was reprinted in my book The Ghastly Ones, I had to cut it up and rework it slightly.I posted it a little bigger below, in sections, so it's easier to read...

About Me

Richard Sala grew up with a fascination for musty old museums, dusty old libraries, cluttered antique shops, narrow alleyways, hidden truths, double meanings, sinister secrets and spooky old houses. He has written and drawn a number of unusual graphic novels and has provided illustrations for a variety of clients all over the world.
His books include THE HIDDEN, DELPHINE, CAT BURGLAR BLACK, PECULIA, MAD NIGHT, THE CHUCKLING WHATSIT, THE GRAVEROBBER'S DAUGHTER, VIOLENZIA and several more.
If you have questions of any kind feel free to send an email to: rsala3130@att.net
PLEASE NOTE: For MUCH MORE current art and activity, please join me over on my tumblr:
http://richardsala.tumblr.com